Search form

Golf Club Developer Issues New Promises, Old Threats as MVC Closes Hearings

Golf Club Developer Issues New Promises, Old Threats as MVC Closes
Hearings

By JULIA WELLS Gazette Senior Writer

The developers who want to build a private luxury golf club on some
270 acres in the last unbroken woodland in Oak Bluffs issued their final
promises - and their final threats - to the Martha's
Vineyard Commission last night.

"The housing option is not a threat but a fact of life. The
golf option is the solution where everyone wins," said Bob Mone,
an Island resident and spokesman for Connecticut developer Corey T.
Kupersmith.

"I don't need this. I play golf at Farm Neck. I think
this is a great project for Oak Bluffs if we go to development,
right?" said Ron Mechur, another resident and leading spokesman
for Mr. Kupersmith.

The comments came during the fifth and final public hearing on the
Down Island Golf Club plan. Held in the cafeteria of the Martha's
Vineyard Regional High School, the hearing attracted about 75 people who
struggled to listen to some three hours of testimony through a cranky
sound system accompanied by a steady drumbeat of banging from a
baseboard heating unit.

The plan is under review by the commission as a development of
regional impact (DRI). Last night the hearing was closed after five
sessions and more than 15 hours of testimony. The written record will
remain open until Jan. 10.

Mr. Kupersmith has filed an alternate plan to build a 366-unit
affordable housing project on the property under Chapter 40B of the
Massachusetts general laws. The housing plan is the subject of a court
dispute that is expected to test whether the commission has the right to
review Chapter 40B applications.

But the plan now before the commission is for a golf course in the
heart of the southern woodlands section of town. Mr. Kupersmith wants to
build a Rees Jones-designed 18-hole golf course with a full-service
clubhouse and dormitory housing for employees. The project includes a
proposal for an organic turf management plan and a hefty
"community benefit" package with payments to the town in
lieu of taxes and sizable monetary gifts to an array of local charities,
including the Martha's Vineyard Arena and Island Elderly Housing.

In a surprise offer to sweeten the deal even more, last night two
Oak Bluffs selectmen who support the golf club unveiled a plan for the
developer to buy a 24-acre landlocked town-owned parcel in the middle of
the Kupersmith property for $1.2 million, and then gift some 20 acres of
land on the Lagoon Pond end of the property to the town. Two golf holes
near the Lagoon would be relocated to the town-owned land.

The plan was proposed by selectmen Todd Rebello and Michael Dutton,
who said they had met with the developer to discuss the idea and had
received a favorable response. They said the money from the sale of the
land would be used for affordable housing.

The details of the plan appeared sketchy; Mr. Dutton admitted that
any sale of town property would require both a two-thirds vote on the
town meeting floor and also an RFP by the town under public procurement
laws.

The two selectmen suggested that the commission write a condition
for approval that would require the sale of the town-owned property to
Mr. Kupersmith for a minimum of $1.2 million.

One member of the commission questioned the legality of such a move.

"When we start writing conditions that involve third parties
we are on especially thin ice," said Linda Sibley. MVC executive
director Chuck Clifford agreed with Mrs. Sibley that conditioning a land
sale deal between the town and the developer is problematic.

"I think it could be a very difficult condition to write
- you are asking the commission to condition a town meeting
vote," Mr. Clifford said.

Commission member Michael Donaroma said the offer was too good to
drop. "This is a carrot. We need to take a serious look at
it," he said.

Mr. Donaroma suggested that the commission consider some kind of
two-tiered approval for the project - but in the end the
"surprise" proposal from the selectmen was left unresolved.

Public testimony on both sides of the golf club project cut across
all walks of Vineyard life.

"All we can do is wish smooth sailing to this group and hope
it goes through," said Bob Priestley, a board member for the ice
arena, who spoke at length about the benefit to the arena from the gifts
of money promised by the developer. The arena has agreed to give the
golf club an easement through its property for a service driveway.

"My prejudice is I love golf and I want to equal the playing
field between the haves and the have-nots here on the Island. I think
with this golf club we have an opportunity to create a new
community," said Chilmark resident Peter Simon.

"I've seen the threats they've made and the money
they've offered and I hope you look at the picture of
environmental changes that are going to be made," said Richard
Williams, a third generation Oak Bluffs resident and former member of
the town planning board.

"There is no way to speak of the golf course as a preservation
of land - it is not a preservation of land, it is a total change,
total - and 400 acres of unbroken land is at stake," said
Oak Bluffs resident Anne Margetson.

The project has the support of the town trails and byways committee,
the finance committee and four of the five selectmen.

The developers have promised to install a sophisticated monitoring
system to protect the groundwater. They have promised to mitigate
nitrogen impact on the Lagoon Pond by paying for septic system upgrades
in homes and commercial properties around the pond. They have offered to
lease the old Webb's Camping Area to the town for $1.

Last night the developers added several more items to the pot of
promises, including a $10 million pesticide and herbicide damage
insurance policy and an offer to make free firewood available to Island
residents.

But before the gavel came down on the final session, more than one
member of the commission took a shot at the developer for the housing
threat.

"The collateral damage from this Chapter 40B proposal has been
enormous. I am very angry about it, and it has made life very difficult
for those of us who have worked very hard to make affordable housing
happen here. I want to give you an opportunity to respond to
that," said Marcia Cini.

"I am telling you there was an alternate plan from the
beginning," Mr. Mechur said.

"Every business has a fallback position, but they don't
wave it around in the air," said commission member Robert Zeltzer.

Mr. Mechur replied: "The economy has changed and right now
Corey Kupersmith has $20 million of his family money in this. But this
isn't about Corey Kupersmith because he isn't really that
involved anymore. This is about a golf club - he needs to get out
of this and it's up to us."